Discovery
by Knavethefish
Summary: An elite human soldier named Abel finds himself with aliens in unknown territory. He contacts the human race and informs them of alien presence. Will peace pan out, or will Andross stop them once and for all? Abel is the catalyst in a world full of secrets and genocide, and he must come to terms with what he is.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note-This is not my idea entirely, the idea to start this came from a very… special person I know. He will be writing certain parts of this story. I'll drop notes for his writing. He will also leave author's notes. I will not be using X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X to change perspective anymore, it's too much of a pain to keep using since I change perspective a lot.

**Chapter 1**

"Damn it McCloud!" Rain shouted from his position under the first of four Arwings in the hangar of the Great Fox.

"What?" Fox McCloud replied to the other fox. He prepared himself for the worst, knowing what kind of anger a guru could unleash when angered.

"If you stopped looking at Krystal for 20 seconds and inspect your own equipment, YOU'D KNOW!" The currently working vulpine ranted, "Best pilot my ass. Do you know when you shake a bottle of wine and the cap pops off? That cap flies better than you."

Fox though for a moment if he really wanted to ask about his analogy, but thought better of it. Instead he asked, "Is it fixable?"

The gray mechanic made an audible sigh before answering, "Fox, everything is fixable. It's just a matter of time. Most people would say in this case it's the time it takes to order a new Arwing. But you found me. And for whatever reason, my mechanical skill and tolerance of you failures makes me Star Fox material in your eyes." He slid himself out from under the plane with one of those rolling mechanic thingies so he could look Fox in the eye. "I'm not entirely sure, but about a week."

"A WEEK!" The russet vulpine shouted, obviously in a panic. "I only took a few shots. HOW IN THE WORLD COULD IT BE A WEEK?"

"You and Krystal had better get comfy. You have a week-long holiday ahead of you."

Fox reddened at the newly inducted Star Fox member's insinuation, but before he could respond, an obviously feminine voice floated from down the corridor complaining, "IT'S 6 AM! Go talk somewhere else." There was a stirring sound, as if the owner of the voice thought they might as well see what was the cause of all this shouting.

"Crap!" Fox half whispered and half shouted, "Get under the Arwing!"

"Do I really want to know why?" The gray mechanic asked nonchalantly.

"Uhh… I kinda made you a member without the knowledge or consent of everyone else. They might see you as a prisoner if they haven't talked to me, so for now that's everyone. And with Krystal awake, she will probably react without good intention." The now clearly panicked leader stated to his currently yawning counterpart.

The other fox thought it was kind of stupid the leader was afraid of one of the members of his own team, but he slipped under the plane with a quick "you're an idiot." He moved not a moment too soon. As soon as his booted feet disappeared, a tired-looking blue vixen appeared in the hangar doorway and began to walk towards Fox with a practiced grace.

"H-Hi Krystal, what's up?" Fox said, clearly nervous and sweating.

She merely responded with, "What were you doing and why are you hiding it?"

"Fine, just let me get him out." Fox said, defeated before he even started. He took a minute to reach under his Arwing until he found what he wanted, as he pulled it out, a look of shock appeared on his face.

"You were hiding one of Slippy's rolling mechanic thingies?" She asked disbelieving.

"No. No I was not. C'mon Krystal, we have to find somebody."  
The vulpine said as he manually wiped the look of shock off his face by closing his muzzle with his hand.

Rain got bored after .5 seconds of hiding. So as soon as Rain knew Krystal wouldn't see him, he got out from under the Arwing and jogged through the hangar door. The two foxes were too wrapped up in their own conversation to notice him leaving.

He walked to the kitchens after he knew he was out of sight. He opened one of the many cupboards and got out a bowl, spoon, and a box of military-issue corn flakes.

Rain was completely engrossed in his food, and didn't see Falco Lombardi walk in. Falco was very groggy, and as a result he didn't register Rain's presence for 10 full minutes. But there was one hell of a reaction when he did.

Falco uttered a shriek not unlike women from 90's horror films. Cornerian and otherwise. He also attempted to train his blaster on the intruder to keep him from moving about freely. Falco's feathers/fingers betrayed him and he accidentally fired a lethal shot at Rain. It hit exactly where it was aimed. However, Falco wasn't aiming. Rain's cereal, bowl, and spoon were vaporized instantly.

"What the hell!" Rain shouted angrily. "YOU SHOT MY BREAKFAST! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" He didn't get up at 4 AM to sneak around a ship just to get some food, only to have it vaporized before him. He was ready to deck the blue avian right there, but the arrival of two others stopped him.

Krystal laid eyes on him and didn't take a moment to react. Her instincts took over and she sprinted towards the supposed intruder and kicked him in the fork of his legs. As he doubled over looking at the floor in immense pain, he knee crashed into his face. His head snapped back and his eyes rolled up into his head.

"I was going to tell you, he's what we were looking for." Fox said, now even more terrified of the vixen.

She glanced at the unconscious vulpine before looking at Fox with her eyebrow raised. She turned to Falco and informed him, "Your scream needs a lot of work." She then turned so as to have both of them in sight. "Well come on, if we're going to move him to a room, we might as well get a move on. Unless you want to leave him here." Both males looked at each other before moving to pick him up by the legs.

**Meanwhile in an area of space outside the Lylat system…**

North Korean Communist forces were ambushing a certain scouting party. More specifically, it was the last major space fleet of the Communists.

"Sir! We're taking heavy fire from Pinkos on all sides." The frenzied techie reported.

The Captain of the Heavy Frigate-Class vessel known as the _Allegheri_ Hernando Jakobs looked at the technical readout before making a decision. "Then we don't have a choice. Alert Wolf 6 that he is to head to the armory accompanied by a squad of troops, where he is to lock down the armory. And soldier, open us a path out from the front of this box."

"I'm already on it sir." The techie said.

Suddenly a small red mote of light that resembled an exploding star appeared in front of Captain Jakobs. It flashed in time with the undoubtedly masculine voice that accompanied it asking, "Captain, should I commence with the transfer to Wolf Abel? The odds of our escape don't look very good. 15 percent to be exact"

"Affirmative Red Dawn. Transfer to Abel immediately." He turned to the soldiers manning the ship controls and said to them, "On my mark transfer everything we have to the engines, but not the emergency thrusters." The men nodded their affirmation to the dark-skinned and nervous Captain. "Good. On my mark…MARK!" The men all began to enter commands into their consoles and the ship began to shake uncontrollably.

The Communist soldiers noticed the move and fired an experimental last-resort beam weapon. The bright green beam of pure energy was fired correctly and more than half the ship fell off, but that only served to make the ship move faster than the others could.

In the armory, Abel felt himself being ripped apart. He locked himself into a chair with only seconds to spare before he blacked out. On Abel's full-face helmet HUD, a timer that was labeled 'Air Recycling System' began to count down from 2:00:00.

Abel awoke with Red Dawn's voice yelling at him through his helmet speakers. "I SAID WAKE UP YOU STUPID SONOFA- oh, you're awake. I'm Red Dawn. Give me a few minutes to inform you of goings-on. We're safe from any danger for now. Your suit has fifteen minutes of air left. I am currently piloting us to an unknown ship. We're outside on known space, so it's unlikely that it's Communist. Most of the ship was lost in the attack. Our current ETA is 10 minutes."

"Thanks." The standard-issue synthetic voice scrambler changed Abel's voice into one that would be unrecognizable if heard by anybody. Without any further thought Abel began to hunt through the armory for equipment. He took 2 frag grenades, any more and he would tire quicker. He decided on a shotgun for the confines of a ship, and a magnum pistol because side arms were required, and the magnum was longer-range.

His suit beeped a five-minute warning just as a console said _docking successful_. Red Dawn was feeling smart, so he announced their arrival through the ship's speakers into the hangar. It was a cliché line from an old horror movie. "Theeeeey're heeeere."

Fox had just finished explaining Rain's informal induction and presence on the ship when an unauthorized broadcast throughout the ship spouted something unintelligible.

Before they could begin to move again, Rain got up and began to groan. "I…can…move." He grunted whilst supporting himself with a wall. He looked a Krystal and got an angry look on his face before shouting "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? DO YOU HAVE SOME PROBLEM WITH ME?" Before he could go on **ANOTHER** rant, (See a pattern here?) Falco took a look at a console and freaked out at what he saw.

"We have an intruder in the hangar!" Falco said, looking rather surprised.

Krystal looked at Rain, "It's got nothing to do with me." Rain said

Krystal looked at Fox, "I didn't bring anybody else onboard." Fox explained

The four Cornerians took off running.

Abel did everything by the book. He checked his corners, he combed the area, but even a hardened soldier like him didn't believe what he saw next. A short, fat toad walkthrough the hangar door and began to inspect the vehicles inside it.

_This is insane! How the hell can a toad walk?_ Abel thought. He took another look at the toad before thinking _My mistake. How the hell can a toad waddle? He looks like a squealer too. I should get rid of him first._

With that Abel took a quick look around, found what he wanted, and threw it at the toad.

Before Slippy knew what happened, a wrench going at high speed nailed him in the back of the head.

Abel watched the toad go down before walking over and policing him for any weapons. He found none. He glanced over at the toad while walking away.

_I don't think a wrench doing 85 did very much damage to this numskull._

The other four Cornerians were watching the events of the short and rather one-sided fight. Eventually Rain shouted out "He hit Slippy!" and held up his hand for high-fives. Despite the fact that some people were extremely tempted to high-five him, (I won't say who) all of his requests were denied.

The noise reached Abel and he quickly turned, raising his shotgun as he did so, quickly realizing his mistake, he holstered it and drew the magnum from its leg holster. "Whoa there cowboy." Red Dawn said, "Let me attempt to make peace with them."

Krystal, being the bravest of the group, headed forward. She glanced back at he teammates before heading forward thinking: _Perhaps I'm not the bravest, but I'm the least scared._

They met in the wide-open center of the hangar, Abel's instincts screamed at him not to do this, but he had to show he was friendly. Red Dawn had examined a few speech logs from the chattering group behind what appeared to be a large blue dog of some kind. Red Dawn began to play what he believed was, 'I come in peace.'

As she neared what appeared to be a 6-foot 7-inch tall black and red robot, it began to speak in a synthetic voice saying, "I will eat your brain waffles." This phrase enraged Krystal. She wasn't here to play games. Damn the fact that if she went through with this she might have an ally who wasn't an idiot, she was going to make it regret playing around.

Falco, Fox, and Rain watched as Krystal leapt into the air, twisted he leg, and placed her booted foot where the groin should be. A Falco and Fox, oof'd. All three cringed, but none more so than Rain, he knew what that felt like, and he began to feel sorry for it. All that sympathy vanished when Krystal's foot was just about to make contact; the thing grabbed her foot, and yanked it up, flipping her vertically. Then, as she was falling, it grabbed her throat and held her right side up.

"Let me try again." Red Dawn said

Able responded, "Screw you, last time you tried to make peace, this happened." shaking Krystal a little.

"I know what I did wrong, let me try again, and if it doesn't work, we can do this your way."

Abel smiled inside his helmet as he thought of how this would end if he got his way. "All right, but one chance, if they react violently, I _will_ kill them."

The robot began to talk once more, and this time it said, "I come with pieces." It obviously didn't like it's answer and corrected itself. "I come in peace." If finally said.

Shocked, The trio merely nodded and Rain had the gall to point at Krystal.

Abel released her and before she could crash to the floor, he grabbed her forearm.

"How can that thing speak our language?" Falco asked, amazed at what he just saw.

"I don't know but- Fox! Stop checking out Krystal!" Rain smacked Fox across the face. Fox responded by bopping Rain on the head.

"If these guys aren't the furry equivalent of the Three Stooges, then I'm a calculator." Red Dawn quipped.

Abel pointed out the now-brawling foxes and the cheering avian. "What's wrong with them?"

Krystal sighed, "I just live with them."

Abel glanced again, "Life must suck."

She looked at his visor, straight into his eyes. But she was searching his mind as well.

She saw horrible things, the deaths of his previous squad mates and friends. All dieing in his arms, while he himself was helpless to save them. She saw the retribution of the people that killed them. She saw him beat a man to death, and beat his corpse until his knuckles were bloody and he was drained of energy.

But in the midst of all that death, she saw a glimmer of hope at the back of his mind. It was the reason he fought, so nobody would end up like him.

She too, had this hope, and began to feel at kinship with him, as he did with her, despite the fact he wasn't telepathic.

She turned to the brawling males and said in her most alluring voice, "Oh Boys." The immediately stopped fighting and the three stood as straight as possible. "I hope you don't mind," she said, "but our friend here needs lodging while we fix his ship. "And anybody so generous will surely be _rewarded_." She winked at them.

"Su-Sure thing, H-He can stay." Fox stuttered

"Y-y-yeah, He's w-welcome here." Rain chocked out

"A hubba wah?" Falco said, too surprised to form a coherent sentence.

**Author's Note-That was a week's worth of writing and planning and revisions. Pretty pathetic, I know. But I was AFK for a week and had nothing better to do. Still, I plan to continue with this story as well as _before the storm_. However, I still have to finish chapter 3. I will update my FFN page so my schedule is clear and I will be able to explain the sporadic updates. It's not like I have anything better to do with my page. I hope you enjoyed the extra-long chapter. I might take a short break from writing. Probably about a day, but that doesn't mean I won't update. I try to get out at least a chapter a week. Since I was on forced hiatus for a week, you get TWO updates. Laters.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Discovery Chapter 2_

_As Abel lay in his new accommodations, he dreamed of his past, unaware he was reliving the nightmare that got him where he was._

'_I'm the worst of the best'_ Abel thought to himself as he walked down a corridor that could only be described as a sterile.

"Wolf 6!, get your ass over here!" A man in a gas mask, mottled gray parka, with body armor bulging out under it shouted to him from the other end of the whitewashed corridor.

"Roger 4." Abel replied and jogged towards the man, who walked into the briefing room, which was in stark contrast to the rest of the building. Their impromptu command center had worked out well, as the planet had large steel reserves from the previous occupants. Five other men stood in front of a man in a command uniform, a black buttoned up shirt, a cap telling his rank, and unremarkable slacks. Abel stood next to the man with a yellow five painted on his helmet.

The man glanced at him before facing the brigadier general in front of them. The general cleared his throat and began to speak. "Gentlemen, you have been gathered to infiltrate a heavily-defended rebel base on the northwest corner of this sector. Get in, get whatever data you can get, and get out. Everyone is expendable."

The identical men nodded once and jogged to the armory. After choosing a K-235 sniper rifle with 6 x telescopic sights and Halthman J-4 pistol, Abel exited and waited in the helicopter until the other members of the squad hopped in with him.

As they flew, the black-clad pilot shouted out "Everybody out!" The pilot's radar showed a projectile heading towards them. He pulled out of the way just in time, the unguided missile shot past them at incredible speed. Over the radio, the pilot got a "We're out" from the commander.

Abel watched the helicopter fly off, leaving the six virtuosos to their job. He pulled up his rifle and stared down the scope at the ominous forest-green mass of steel that was their objective. "6, any guards?" Wolf 4 asked his comrade.

"Yes, two drones, and three guards, all about 30 meters apart."

"Can you kill the drones?" came the reply

"Going for it now." He aimed at the drones as they milled around in the air, their operators unaware of the master killer preparing as they sat. Abel quickly pulled the trigger twice, the first round hitting home in the groove near the central 'eye'. Abel smirked as the first drone fell to the ground with a thump that shook the ground beneath his boots. He knew there were only a handful of people in the system that could make a shot like that. The second shot went wide, hitting it above the eye instead.

"Shit!" the squadron commander said over the COM, raising his machine gun to bear upon his mechanized foe. A flash of smoke, and a grenade sped from the barrel and impacted upon its target. The drone exploded in a bright flash of fire and steel.

The next three shots came from over Abel's shoulders and each found their mark in a roof guard's torso. The commander looked at Abel and said "Sloppy, only an idiot like you would've made the mistake of lowering your rifle after you've shot." Abel accepted this. He had failed, now he would be punished. He stood his ground as his teammates surrounded him. He seemed to watch himself from a different perspective. And yet the pain crept through him, his body emitting grunts as each

'That was the price.' he told himself as his vision blurred. He got up from his doubled-up position and ran after the rest of the team despite the great pain. As he began to move, he felt himself come back to his body. It didn't matter, he had died long ago. This was his recompense for the sins of his flesh.

But now he was a tool, and a broken tool was useless. He would serve until he was gone. He finally caught up with his squad mates at the door to the reactor room. At the opening of the door, the effect was instantaneous. The squad flowed out into the room, placing bullets in the guard's heads. The scientists were killed with knives to conserve ammo.

One of the Wolves, sporting a large white 5 on the side of his thick helmet, jogged to his target and began planting his explosives on the main reactor spire. Wolves 1 and 6 covered him, but in the center of the large gray room, the only real protection they could offer was meat shields.

The Second, Third, and Fourth Wolves took their places at the main and only entrance. Their operation had gone off without a hitch so far, and they meant to continue their streak. Abel moved to one of the consoles near the reactor. He set off the emergency detonation protocol, and rammed his knife through the panel. The power was lost for a brief second, but returned moments later with flashing red lights and alarms, telling the Wolf he had succeeded.

As Private First Class Leander Tyko rushed down the hall, the lights gave out, and in the momentary darkness he tripped. As his face collided with the floor, his helmet's strap came loose, and he was forced to grope around in complete blindness while the power returned. When it did, the alarms blared in his ears. He scooped up his helmet in one fluid motion from its position a few feet in front of him.

His commander, spoke to Leander through his fabric mask. His muffled voice still sharp through the alarms. Tyko, we've got ops guys in the next room. Use the sonar they gave us and mark em'. You'll take point, and the rest of Coaxing Dragon will cover you. The rest of the anti-ops unit, known as Coaxing Dragon, lifted their various weapons as Tyko lowered the sonar goggles onto his face.

He made a quick prayer to the Creator. As a religious man, he had been told to ask for forgiveness before and after his sins. As the technology over his eyes activated, 6 green-outlined skeletal structures appeared before him. The first three guarded the door ahead. The other three were planting a bomb of some kind. He used the Squad Assessment Markers, otherwise called SAM, and six orange arrows appeared above the targets on his friend's HUDs. He rushed to the door, and activated the torch he had been carrying.

This torch was designed not to cut through a door, but to melt any metal in front of it. It preformed its task well, but the failure was not anybody or anything's. As the molten metal dripped to the floor, and hand gripped Leander's arm, it quickly twisted, and before he knew what had happened, a silver flash crossed his vision before all he could see was red, then a bright white light, and then darkness.

The first of twelve soldiers fell to 4's knife. Abel stood in front of the man arming the bomb and aimed his rifle towards the soldiers. He could briefly see a dragon's claw on the man's soldier as he fell to the bullet in his throat. It looked as if beckoning to him, saying 'Give up.' But his reverie was cut short by another man being turned into red mist by a Wolf. The squad all activated their grenades, and lobbed them down the hall. The offenders had no choice but to run down the hall and none of them had been able to fire a shot or turn to run when they were cut down by gunfire.

Rico Aldreas, the commander of Coaxing Dragon, fell to several bullets in his arm, as he fell, the grenades detonated, throwing him down the hall, and his legs towards the walls. He struggled to get away, refusing to die despite the severe physiological trauma of his friends and squad mates dying. He was grabbed on his injured arm. He screamed in spite of the pain. A voice hissed in his ear, disguised by some hidden technology, 'No blade sings quite like fear.' And his vision dimmed as he was stabbed in the back of the head. It was very gradual and painful, his vision dimming as his attacker's boots clomped past him. After they disappeared, he was left to focus on fighting the pain. But then, as quickly as it began, he stopped, and slumped, his covered head hitting the floor.

For a dead man, Abel was remarkably impressed by the nerve-enhancing weaponry and armor he had been equipped with. He continued down the hall, he and his team heading several miles away from this place. He still didn't understand 4's quip. He was mentally unstable, as his file read. But that was probably what made him valuable. And he was also the closest thing to a friend Abel had.

After 8 hours of nerve-enhanced sprinting, the squad finally slid to a stop. While more powerful than most, they couldn't outrun attack helicopters. They had been running from the patrol since hour number 3, returning to the base at note of the general distress, they had followed them, gaining very, very slowly. Abel cursed himself for not finding a way to disable the general alarms, and still power the ones inside, but it was too late to change it now.

They were in open terrain, with no cover, against superior forces. They set off their IR beacon, telling their transport to pick them up, but it would be 15 minutes to arrive. And that was fifteen minutes they didn't have.

On the first pass, all of the squad was able to dodge the inaccurate fire of the mounted chain guns. But that was a distraction to the real danger. The second copter had fired two Panther anti-tank missiles. The third and final had been unloading foot soldiers. Many, many bullets headed towards them, but Abel was hit by the flak from the first Panther. He fell, bleeding in too many places to count, and incapacitated on his helmet's HUD. He saw only blackness, and when color returned to the world, it was blurry at best. He saw much fire, and many bodies.

An armored figure stood over him. He held up a hand, ready to be pulled up by the man. Instead, his hand was crushed by the figure's boot. The pain blurred his vision, and all he could see were five sets of glowing red eyes. A voice, distorted by technology and pain, whispered in his ear. To him, it was a demon screaming into his mind.

"You're not worth the bullet it takes to kill you." With that, it tore off his helmet, exposing him to the temperature. A black shape hovered above him. There was a flash, and Abel, also known as Wolf six, was gone from the world. The bullet lodged itself in the center of his skull.

Back on the Great Fox, Abel's eyes shot open, exposing him to the night.


	3. Chapter 3

When he woke, Abel found himself on the Great Fox. He suddenly remembered the past day's events. He activated his suit's non-critical systems. The time said 2 AM, but he knew better to trust it in a different part of the universe. He assumed he had woken because of his dream. He hated reliving the battles. He didn't even remember most of them. It was best not to.  
He glanced around the room. He suddenly remembered the arrangements made by the blue fox he had met. He was in the blue bird's quarters, while the gray one was with the clumsy frog. He had found it difficult to sleep, due his companion's nocturnal mumbling. At first it was about something made of gold. Then he started on about hitting somebody with it.

He had tried his best to ignore it, and found his suit had a mute function. The crew on this ship was quite odd. He didn't feel like waiting until a reasonable hour to eat, so he rose from his prone position on the floor and walked around the ship. He tried to be as quiet as he could in fear of repeating yesterday's unfortunate cereal incident. Red Dawn suddenly activated and spoke to him through his helmet. "Up quite early aren't we?" The AI spoke with a smug tone, as if he expected it.

"If you weren't a chip I'd throttle you." The irritated commando spoke to his less-than-agreeable companion.

"And if you weren't an ass I'd be friends with you." The rather arrogant intelligence replied.

Their argument was cut short by the appearance of the dining area. Abel found a set and wiped away the pile of ash on the table, forgotten with the arrival of himself and the other one.

He leafed through the cabinets and found something that looked edible. He was surprised that the room looked so much like a kitchen that could be found on Earth. He took another look at the box and noticed all the letters looked like gibberish. He groaned to himself saying, "How am I supposed to know what this even says?"

"I hope it has the same flavor as your attitude: horrible" His digital antagonist chimed in.

This was going to be a bad day, and he knew it. He pulled off his helmet to eat. Revealing raven-colored hair, hanging down almost to his eyes, a hawkish nose, sea-green eyes, and rather pale complexion.

He took a bite of what appeared to be run-of-the-mill cereal, and found it only tasted mediocre. However, he was hungry, having eaten only rations for about a week beforehand. After polishing off a bowl-full of the stuff, he decided to try and go back to sleep. It was much easier after he put on his helmet and keyed up the mute sequence.

He fell asleep within minutes. Only to be woken by the wound of an alarm going off. Instantly, all of the doors unlocked and opened, leaving everybody exposed to the might of a ship-wide wake-up alarm.

The mute function was very well designed. He didn't hear a thing, and so slept like a rock.

About fifteen minutes later the whole crew was assembled, plus Rain. Fox was doing roll call when he found he was missing one. "Odd." The russet vulpine though to himself "I though Falco would have woken him." He asked Falco about that very thing and found Falco was unable to wake him.

In about thirty seconds the whole crew was crammed into Falco's room. They all bunched together, giving Abel ample space to just lie there like a dead man. "He's not, dead, is he?" Slippy asked in an incredibly uncertain voice.

"No, I don't think so…" Fox replied, even more uncertain than Slippy

As a test, Falco picked up a wad of paper from his desk and threw it at the sleeping human. "Proximity alert!" his suit informed him. His eyes flashed open and he rolled off of his gut and reached out for the object. The paper was halfway across the room by the time he was ready. He grabbed the crumpled mess, and was quite prepared to throw it back at the blue falcon, but instead strode up to him and jabbed him with his suit-clad index finger in the falcon's shoulder.

"Guess he wasn't dead." Fox commented dryly.

"I'm beginning to like this guy." Rain said with a smirk on his drowsy face, much to his avian associate's dismay.

Abel stalked off to some unknown area of the ship while the other members of the crew and their additional passenger commented on his performance.

The crew slowly filed out over the course of the next five minutes. Krystal however, went looking for Abel rather than go to her station. She found him on the flight deck, leaning against the far right-hand wall, watching the Arwings, or perhaps studying them?

She called out to him, "What are doing here?"

"Seeing what the this ship has to offer." The dark soldier answered. He took some time to think while she crossed over to him. He hadn't really introduced himself had he?

When she reached him, he held out his hand and said in the overly synthesized voice provided to him, "We didn't really get to know each other, I'm Abel." She stared at his outstretched hand as she listened to his words.

After a few moments he withdrew his hand. A voice filtered out of his helmet "It's proper Terran custom to shake another's hand in greeting." In response, Abel tore off his helmet and proceeded to punt it across the room. Krystal wondered if that was some kind of gesture among friends in this "Terran" place they came from. She looked at his face and realized she hadn't actually seen it.

The strangest part of his face was his eyes. His eyes were the green of the sea, but dark, piercing, and seemingly infinite. They seemed to capture another's gaze and hold it for however long he wanted. They-

His asking, "Was there something you wanted, or did you just want to stare at my face?" cut her reverie short.

She struggled to choke out a reply as he stood there with a solemn face, awaiting her reply. "I- No- I just wanted to- just wanted to-" Suddenly a smirk appeared on his otherwise emotionless face. He wasn't laughing at her distress, but he was enjoying it too much.

"Relax," he said in a light tone, "I was joking, I know you wanted to find out more about me, you said so in your diary."

She was shocked at his knowledge, had he hacked the ship's cameras? Or been sneaking throughout the ship? But instead she asked as calmly as she could manage at this point, "How do you know I have one?"

He replied after flexing his hands a little. "Easy, you just told me." He said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"That is IT!" She said angrily. "You, me, in the ring, now." She was not taking this jerk's remarks anymore, kinship or not.

"Would you like me to beat you with, or without the suit?" He replied arrogantly.

"I know your tricks, without that stupid thing."

"If I didn't know better I'd say you wanted me out of more than the suit" came the ever-more infuriating reply.

Krystal grabbed his forearm to make sure he wouldn't get away from his due beating. Then she set off at a jog, forcing him to do the same.

After about thirty seconds of jogging and a thirty second elevator ride, they arrived at the recreation deck, which at current was unoccupied except for Peppy, who was in the process of baking something.

After a quick three minutes of preparation, the two were ready. Abel wore a customary green guest outfit, complete with hand wraps.

Krystal wore a deep red that offset her fur's natural color. And Abel had to admit to himself, she looked good in red.

Abel fought aggressively, making attack after attack to keep her off balance, but he underestimated Cornerians, not to mention he fought rather like a blind and desperate old man.

She balanced her knee on his chest, while pinning his arms to the mat. She got very close to his face, trying to unnerve him.

She leaned next to his ear, and breathed out very quietly to the rather injured man, "I don't think you'll ever understand us. And just to be clear, keep those comments to yourself, or this WILL happen again."

He just looked up at her with what she though was an inquisitive look. Then he said slowly and calmly, "That was a test. We used to use it to know whom we could trust. I normally don't act like that. Now if you don't mind I'd like to breathe." She glanced down at his chest before letting out a surprised "Oh" and standing.

But now she began to wonder as he rose, "Why had she reacted so oddly? She wasn't like that."

"What the hell?" Abel wondered as he rose. "I don't fight like that. And I sure as hell don't test people like that." He made a quick realization as he thought about what some scientists had told him many years back. He recalled a few words, "Side effects. Mental deterioration. Barbarism. Short term." But he hadn't been there. He would have remembered better. He must have heard it from somewhere.

He left the room quickly and without another word. He headed for the hangar. He found the helmet among some broken tools in a heap of trash. "Just my luck." He said to the entity inside the helm. "When I want you scrapped, I need you." He picked up the helmet and put it on. He then looked down and noticed he was still in the green training gear from the match. He made his way back to the locker rooms, thankfully nobody was there. He put his suit back on and sat down on a bench. It was time to get some answers. He said "Command 34 override shutdown protocol. Activate AI Red Dawn."

The voice filled his ears, "You didn't have to do that I was just-"

"Cut the crap." The killer interrupted. "I want to know about the words 'mental deterioration' 'short term' 'barbarism' and what they have to do with me."

The response was drowned out by the docking alarm and Fox saying over the intercom, "Everybody, this is Fox, we've arrived at Corneria City, General Pepper has sent an escort aboard to deal with the extra passenger." Abel groaned as he heard footsteps coming down the hall.


	4. Chapter 4, Dark Space, Dark Words

**Author's Note: I haven't forgotten this series, but anyhow, this'll be a side project. Also, I decided I'll respond to reviews on my profile page, because guests can't get replies.**

Abel groaned and started running. Why was he always the one to fall into the mess? Red Dawn started giving him directions to the nearest exit as he began to reach a full sprint, aided by his recently-donned suit.

"Hang a left, no… a right, and duck!" Red Dawn shouted just as the three-way turn came into view. Abel half slid and half turned the corner. A scarlet bolt rocketed past his side and into the wall. He didn't turn to look at the shooter. Then, a left turn appeared. He took it. He ran straight for a few yards, skipping another left turn.

"Contact ahead. Neutralize, but don't kill." Dawn instructed as an avian appeared around the corner, he began leveling his gun when the super-soldier's shoulder took him in the gut. Throwing his arm up to launch his foe, Abel pulled his arm back and hammered the beaked figure with two right jabs as he began to meet the floor.

The Cornerian was held up with his injuries, and wouldn't follow anybody any time soon. He resumed his run, only to be caught square in the back with another bolt. He staggered and stopped.

He began to turn when another bolt hit him. He was forced to the ground, weakened by the first shot. Sixteen more bolts hit him in various places until Abel stopped moving.

Fox McCloud stood over the motionless body as a few other armored Cornerians crowded around. He certainly didn't enjoy filling his 'guest' with so many stun bursts it would have killed anybody else, but he was a monstrous danger.

Finally, General Pepper stood next to Fox, examining the human in an almost cold and calculating manner. He patted Fox on the shoulder, but did nothing else as he ordered the men to load the body. The men obeyed, but seemed hesitant to come into contact with the suit, as if it would light them all on fire at first touch.

Abel awoke tied to a chair. His commando's mindset raced to rationalize and solve the problem at hand. He was bound at the wrists, ankles, and throat. The chair was bolted to the floor, and his helmet was not on him.

A Cornerian appeared from the left side of his limited vision. He was a snow-white dog with gaunt features. He folded his hands behind his back and looked down upon the wreck of a man. He spoke as if informing somebody of common knowledge, "Human, you must answer our questions, and you will be given a limited degree of freedom."

He stared blankly at the canine, his suspicion and curiosity fueling his desire to keep this one uninformed. The canine's face screwed up instantly, and he shouted to somebody behind Abel, "He's resisted everything! Just give me one crack at 'im and I'll have him crying for mercy."

He must have liked the answer he got, because a massive smirk birthed on his thin features. A jolt of fear passed through the human, knowing this probably wouldn't end well. A fist raced into his throat, robbing his throat of air.

The next three punches landed similarly to his left shoulder, solar plexus, and throat again. Then, something snapped for the second time. Everything slowed, and the tormentor's fist seemed to be trapped in tar as it came at him.

Then, it all came into focus as his body reacted to a mix of adrenaline, instinct, and the augmentations of the suit.

His feeble titanium bonds snapped and his fists rose, and trapped the blow by locking his fists around the sides of the wrist. He rose from his seat, unaware that the bonds at his ankles and throat were even there to be snapped.

His hands keeping the hound in place, Abel brought his knee into his assaulter's face, and then moved his hands to snap off two quick punches to the throat. His left foot swept the gasping fool off the floor and rose, and fell like a headsman's axe into his chest, breaking several ribs.

He finished him by putting his left arm through the dog's stomach in an impossibly powerful strike as he tried to get up from his super-powered blows.. He had never been this violent, letting the gore spray the walls, and curling his fingers before he pulled them out of the canine. He no longer cared. A primal bloodlust overtook him, but he had nowhere to vent it.

The room finally came into focus as his blood fever left him. A glass viewing window was behind him. He couldn't see through it, but he didn't have to. He tried the door to the right, but it was locked, and made of stronger metal unknown to him.

He was about to put his fist through the glass when his vision blurred and darkened, and he felt himself slump to the floor. Cornerians rushed into the room, two bearing the red crosses of the Medics Corps.

"Sir!" One of the young medics reported to a sergeant who was overseeing the soldiers guarding them.

"What is it corporal?" The annoyed vulpine asked

"The prisoner sir, he's dead. His heart's stopped, almost as if what he did to Corporal Adams happened to him."

Fox watched it all unfold from behind the one-way glass. He'd never felt anything for the human, due to the fact he hadn't known him very long, but still, two men were dead, and it was on his hands.

**Meanwhile, in known space…**

"Sir, we've got a message with an origin from somewhere in unknown space!" A startled ensign informed the officer on the bridge.

"An alien race?" The man shouted down to the private from the raised platform in the center of the bridge.

"I'll throw it up on the big screen and see what you think." The private stated as he tapped a few keys quickly before turning to face the viewing window, which doubled as a porthole.

A large primate's face filled the screen. "Greetings to the human race," he began, "we bring you dire news. The crew of one of your ships and the… extra crewman on board has been killed by rebels from our race."

The ensign traded wide-eyed stares with the person at the terminal to his left. The two quickly looked back to the message, while the officer above watched with an imperceptible stare.

"They wish for nothing but our utter destruction and we wish to make an alliance before this becomes genocide on their hands. Meet my team at the attached coordinates and we'll help you take out the base at which you man was confined. My Venomian forces will help you in whatever way they can, so please don't be alarmed by their appearance. This ends the message from Andross, leader of the Venomian army. Death to the Cornerian rebels. Goodbye."

The ensign closed the still image of the ape's frozen face and gave a nervous look the commanding officer.

The officer stared back. "Inform High Command we'll be making a venture to unknown space and require the assistance of Wolf Pack and the Scorpions to recover the remains of Wolf Six for a repeat of Project Tantalus. Also let them know about these… Cornerians and see if we can make a date entry on them."

The ensign gave a nervous gulp, saluted, and began his work.


	5. Chapter 5-1, For Better Or For Worse

**A/N: This chapter has taken a VERY long time, due to unforeseen event, (and my excessive laziness) and all of that fun stuff. So here's the deal: I'm going to give you this bit of chapter 5 that I've written because this will be a LONG chapter. Every chapter after this will be 5-2 and so on, until I accomplish the goal I wanted to for the chapter. After I'm done, I can leave them as is, or I can combine them into a super-huge chapter. Your choice.**

A grey, steel room. It was empty, save for a table and two chairs. One was one of those types of foldable metal ones, while the other was padded, with armrests, and looked almost like it swiveled. A man in a tan uniform was pushed into the room by two armed men in green uniforms. The man in tan is bearded and scruffy, he looks like he's been imprisoned, or at least hasn't had the chance to shave in a while. His uniform is covered with streaks and marks all telling a story of their own. The other two both had elephant patches on their left shoulders.

The man in tan was handcuffed, and the other two guided him to the chair and shoved him into it, attaching both his handcuffed wrists to the table then they left the room together. There was a hole in his uniform, just below his heart, where a patch like the other two's once rested, ripped off without mercy.

The man looked down briefly at the empty space before turning to face another man, who was just entering the room.

This man was neatly dressed in a charcoal grey suit, complete with white cuffs. He sat down in the padded chair and made himself comfortable. He turned to regard the prisoner before him.

He placed his hands on the metal table in that oh-so-psychologist way. That really pissed off the man in the folding chair.

"So, Mr. Voidick. I understand that you were on the mission to recover the body of a certain soldier. A one Abel –" But his next words were cut off by the room's other inhabitant.

"Shut the hell up!" The man in the uniform shouted. "Just tell me what you want so I can tell you to screw yourself and we can all walk away happy."

The man in the comfortable chair smirked, as if this was what he wanted. He started again, "Neither of us is leaving this room until I have what I want. I offer you two options: First, we can both wait here until one of us dies from dehydration. And judging from your little stint in prison, I think I'll win. Or, two, you can tell me what I want and we'll kill you quickly."

Voidick glared at his smug captor, silently plotting some form of escape.

"There's nobody to save you now." The man continued, "No _government_ to come in with a team and stop me, and nowhere to go once we get what we want."

He continued to stay stubbornly silent, not at all willing to cooperate.

"Look," The man said in an irritated tone, "What they did was _wrong_, and you're going to defend that? We're the good guys. All we want to do is pick up the pieces and repurpose the… tainted assets they've let loose."

All he received for his speech was another glare.

"Fine, just help us find Wolf Squad, and we'll let you, and the rest of your team of criminals, live."

Once more, the uniformed man remained silent to the negotiations, only this time; there was burning determination in his eyes. He would not give up the information. He was so determined, there was no such thing as 'victory and defeat' anymore. Only victory, only winning. Only denying the man his prize. There was no possibility of losing.

The man sighed, but knew what he would have to do.

'_I always hate plan B'_ he thought briefly before walking closer to the man. He stopped just in front of him, and placed his hand on the forehead of the prisoner. An electric shock flew through his hand like liquid lightning and flying fire. Instantly, he understood, all the man's memories were now his. But they were quickly filtered out before his mind overloaded. Then he was in possession of the collection of thoughts that made up the event he was looking for. In truth, he didn't need to know the location of the Wolves. He needed to know about the possibility of regeneration. It was rumored to have been used on the Wolf Squad whenever a member died.

_And now, the memories…_ was the man's only thought before his vision began to darken as he sank into the trance of stolen memories. The last thing he saw was one of his men raise his rifle, and shoot the prisoner in the head.

_*Initializing Heads-Up-Display…Complete*_

_*Registering Armor and Weapon type, classification, and customizations*_

_*Reading [REDACTED] Identification Card… Welcome Sgt. Tydun Voidick*_

"Hey, Wave!" A man in a dirty tan uniform shouted to a similarly-clad person in the corner of the conference room, "Your helmet still working after that explosion?"

*_Recognition: Facial Features- PFC Horace Grimalkus*_

"Seems so." The man called Wave in the corner responded. "Hell if I know how durable this is."

"Yeah, just got a message from our lords and masters the Skill-Oriented Military Employment. We got a 'special' mission debrief in less than an hour."

Wave groaned, "Why does S.O.M.E keep sending us on cleanup jobs?" He looked to the approaching man, "Unicorn, if I have to do ONE more job like last, please shoot me."

The soldier with the extremely masculine name shrugged, "I have no clue, but looks like you'll be getting command for this one. Must not be too important."

"Burn in hell" Wave said before walking away to the debriefing room. "_'Debriefing Room' was-is- an understatement. This room alone could hold an army."_ He mused.

His thoughts were cut short by a large screen, playing a video of some giant monkey head talking. This was surprising, to say the least.

"I thought they didn't let us use that thing for YouTube." Wave stated, pointing at the screen.

A man in a neat gray uniform turned to him. "They don't." The man was probably in his mid-fifties, and looked like a drill sergeant.

"Well Hell, this can't be good."

"This is the face of a potential ally." The old man said in a loud voice, drawing the attention of all the room's other inhabitants. We were contacted by an alien race and informed that one of our soldiers is being held captive by a group of their rebels. This soldier possesses vital intel on both ourselves and them. We plan to work with these, 'Venomians' for the time being, until we can assess the situation and the threat they pose to us. Five members of the Scorpions and the remainder of the Wolves will rendezvous with five of their operatives, and recover our man."

He looked a Wave briefly before going on.

"Failing that, we are to recover his body and the equipment he possesses. Then, we blow the ever-loving hell out of whatever hell-hole he's being kept in. Now get back to work, those shuttles don't organize themselves."

He turned to face Wave. "Sergeant Voidick, get a team ready. This is important, so the Wolves have direct command over all of you, and you have command over your men and the aliens. It seems they're short on troopers, and their commander was recently killed."

Suddenly serious, Wave saluted and turned, heading toward the hanger, simultaneously sending a message across the ship's loudspeakers, "Unicorn, Marauder, Newbie, and Mister: Report to the flight deck."

The men he'd requested seemed to have understood that they were needed for something special, because each and every one of the operatives was armed and armored. Each of them had any one of various weapons and standardized armor.

Each man's armor was personalized, to an extent. They were all the same base of a helmet with a T-shaped visor, the almost muscled shape of their Kevlar-Ceramic suits, and the signature Scorpion patch over each man's heart.

Several off-duty marines had come to watch. What they found in watching guys get onto a dropship, Wave didn't know. Perhaps they felt the strange tension running through all of them saying, 'something bad is going to happen'.

The long, streamlined craft pulled into the hangar through the small field that kept the stations air in place. "Time to go." Wave announced to his men.

"As if that's not already obvious enough." A voice behind him shouted.

Wave refused to dignify that comment with a response, it would only bring worse if he did respond.

There was the sound of a hand colliding with someone's helmet and a yelp that followed it.

"Let's just go." Wave said with a sigh of defeat, not wanting any more bad crap to happen.


End file.
